mining

Managing naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) in mining and mineral processing
 

 

After it has been used as fuel for power plants, the thorium leaves behind minuscule amounts of waste. And that waste needs to be stored for only a few hundred years, not a few hundred thousand like other nuclear by-products. Because it’s so plentiful in nature, thorium is virtually inexhaustible. It’s also one of only a few substances that acts as a thermal breeder, in theory creating enough new fuel as it breaks down to sustain a high-temperature chain reaction indefinitely. And it would be virtually impossible for the by-products of a thorium reactor to be used by terrorists or anyone else to make nuclear weapons.

Read more at Wired Magazine at http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/

Western Australian Resources Minister Norman Moore said yesterday he expected a uranium mine to be up and running in WA within three years, a target the Greens have described as ambitious and a concern.
 
In a speech to the Australian Uranium Summit in Fremantle, Mr Moore said the Government was aware of five companies that intended to develop uranium deposits in WA and he expected at least one project to be working within three years.

Full story in the West Australian

The long wait is over...the draft EIS for the Olympic Dam Expansion Project is now available. The draft EIS, along with many other explanatory documents and videos, can be viewed at:

http://www.bhpbilliton.com/bb/odxEis.jsp

Canadian uranium giant Cameco Corp is building a 40-person mine camp and preparing for a groundbreaking drilling program at its Kintyre project in the east Pilbara, less than a year after buying the worldclass asset off Rio Tinto for $US495 million ($692 million).

Read more in the West Australian...